


Sports Can be Dangerous

by ConstancePenman



Category: Something You Want (Webcomic)
Genre: College AU, Fencing AU, More Of A, improper use of fencing equipment, so they can all go to the same college, sort of, the older kids are aged down, the younger ones aged up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-20 09:01:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11332602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConstancePenman/pseuds/ConstancePenman
Summary: Maitho's not much of a sports guy.





	Sports Can be Dangerous

Most people were shocked when they discovered Maitho wasn’t into sports. He had well-toned arms--a result of cooking, though many did not make that connection--which seemed to indicate an interest in football or basketball, or some other respectable sport. This unfortunate coincidence meant that second impressions of Maitho often fell short of the first one.“Ooh, a cook  _ and _ a sportsman! Some girl will be very lucky” quickly became “How do you expect to make a living? Why would any girl want to marry a cook?”

Maitho had become extremely sensitive of his choices. Why throw away potential scholarship money? Shouldn’t he put his strength to good use?

So one day, the first week of his second year in college, Maitho decided to sign up for a sports club. Now he just had to decide which one.

Football wasn’t his style. All that pushing and shoving… besides, he’d never had the strongest knees. Same went for soccer and basketball. So all the obvious choices were out. That left some mysterious college-exclusive sport no one quite knew the rules to, or--

Fencing.

Hm.

Walking back and forth down a narrow mat and stabbing at people with a harmless sabre. He could do that.

So he signed up, glad that the required equipment would be provided. A few days later, the first meeting came and he walked into class, not really sure what to expect.

The first thing he saw was a fellow student sliding into his jacket--stained, worn, clearly his own. He was short, much shorter than Maitho, with brown, wavy hair. He had dark circles under his eyes, a long, pointy nose, and sideburns. Overall, he was… far more attractive than his separate components should have made him.

He met Maitho’s gaze, put on a smile, and waved with the hand not holding a mask. Maitho waved back with a grin. He then watched silently as the man slipped on his mask, grabbed his sabre, and practiced, fencing an imaginary opponent. It was mesmerizing, watching him move. Part of him wondered if he shouldn’t back out before the instructor saw him, because fencing looked a  _ lot _ more difficult than he’d assumed.

“Maitho Rothbauer?”

Whelp. Too late now.

“Yes?” He turned away from the confusingly attractive fencer to the rather grumpy looking man before him.

“I’m Joe. Assistant instructor.” Rather than reach out a hand, Joe glared with tired eyes as a greeting.

“Assistant?”

“Technical title. The actual teacher never shows up, you probably won’t meet them.”

“O...kay.”

“We’re gonna start soon, will you need to borrow some equipment or did you bring your own?” he asked although, seeing as Maitho wasn’t carrying anything except a thermos of water, the answer was fairly obvious.

“Uh, yeah, I’ll have to borrow some.”

Joe turned around, walking past the mats to a backroom filled with sabres, chest plates, jackets, and white leggings. None of the leggings were in his size, but he was wearing sweatpants so he got away without them.

Finally the lesson began. Five others he didn't recognize lined up, one per mat. A kid with black hair and a sulky demeanor who didn't look old enough to be in college stood to his right while the fencer that had caught Maitho’s eye earlier stood to his left. He noticed his staring, much to Maitho’s embarrassment, and flashed that same grin as before.

“I'm Cooper,” he said, reaching out a hand in greeting.

“Oh, um, Maitho. This is my first day.” He took Cooper’s hand, shaking it firmly.

“I'd guessed, I spend a lot of time here. Have you fenced before?”

Before he could answer, Joe cleared his throat, glaring at Cooper as if he'd killed his boyfriend. Maitho guessed that while Joe wasn't exactly friendly with anyone, he hated Cooper’s guts. Interesting.

He didn't get the chance to think about it much more though. He was too busy trying to figure out the first parry.

**.**

It was mid-February that Maitho discovered the fencing club may not have been only what it seemed.

Caprice, his friend/crush of many years, had recently transferred to his college. They’d practically been hanging out non-stop, eating breakfast or brunch together every Saturday, constantly needing to catch up on all the years they’d missed of each other.

One such Saturday brunch, Caprice jumped in her barstool, her phone buzzing in her pocket. Smiling apologetically, she took it out and stared at the screen. Her face fell, eyes widening.

“What is it?”

She silently showed him the text from… Oh. Felix, her shitty ex.

“He’s in the city.”

“He followed me,” Caprice mumbled, her pupils shrunken.

“Are you okay?” he asked quietly, doing his best not to disrupt her artificially stable breaths. He moved his hand towards hers, offering touch but not forcing it. She didn’t answer, taking his hand and clenching it. He gently squeezed back, trying to tell her she could take as much as she needed out on him.

“Should we leave?”

Caprice nodded, holding onto his hand as she stood.

**.**

“I can’t believe he followed her to the city! After everything he did to her…”

“Oh?”

Cooper bent his sabre against the mat, first one way then the other.

“I just wish he’d  _ die. _ ”

He stopped, looking up at Maitho. He grinned in that disconcerting (yet undeniably attractive) way of his.

“I’ll kill him if you dispose of the body.”

Maitho laughed, getting into stance at the opposite end of the mat.

“It’s a deal.”

They both flipped down their masks and began the match.

Later that night, much later, 3 am later, Maitho’s phone buzzed. He squinted and watched, bleary eyed, as it inched closer to the edge of his desk. He reached out and caught it just as it tumbled off.

“Hello?”  
  
“Maitho, hey!”

“Cooper?” He spoke quietly, trying not to wake up his roommate. “It’s…. 3:15, what’s going on?”

“Could you come to the rec building? I think there’s someone you’d like to see.”

“At 3:15.”

“Yep! Come over. Soon. See you!”

He hung up and flung his arm over his eyes. Damn his constant need to be surrounded by friends.

By 3:40, he’d made it to the rec building, hands buried deep in his jacket pockets. His feet burned, yelling at him for the genius idea of walking across campus in slippers. He leaned against the door, pushing it open, unwilling to remove his hands from the sanctuary of wool.

Cooper grinned when he saw him, pushing off the wall with his foot.

“Glad you could make it! I was a bit worried you’d fallen asleep again. But here you are!”

“Here I am.” He grumbled. He took a deep breath and let it out again, blinking a couple times. Better to not let his post-sleep grumpiness get the best of him.

“He’s just through here.”

Maitho blurrily noticed that Cooper was in full armor, electric jacket over his regular stained one, sabre and helmet’s wires hanging loose. What was going on?

Then he saw who sat knocked out in the fencing room and he had a guess.

“Is that Felix?”

As Maitho ran over to the limp body, Cooper stood with his arms crossed, proud smile on his face.

“You said you wanted him dead, I did you one better.”

Felix’s arms were bruised a deep purple, his knuckles bright red, a trickle of blood falling from his scalp.

“What did you do?”

He shrugged. “I fenced him. He lost.”

Maitho spun back around to face him.

“What the fuck Cooper? He’s bleeding, you don’t  _ fence  _ someone who isn’t wearing gear!”

“To be fair, he did have a sabre.”

“Did he even know how to fence?”

“That obviously wasn’t the point, Maitho.” Cooper laughed lightly, shifting his weight to one leg, resting his free hand against his hip. “You said it yourself, he’d be better off  _ dead _ . This is just a little less worthy of capital punishment.”

“I didn’t mean that literally!”

“And I didn’t take it literally. I took as an indication that he was a truly awful person and that he  _ deserved _ this. I considered inviting Caprice, but I didn’t have her number, and I wasn’t sure how she’d react.”

At this, Maitho stopped, putting a hand to his forehead. “You didn’t know how she’d react?”

“Yeah. I barely know her.”

“And you  _ did _ know how  _ I’d _ react?”

“Of course.”

“And you thought I’d… what, enjoy this?”

Cooper scoffed, crossing his arms. “I thought you’d at least appreciate it.”

“I don’t even know what ‘it’ is!”

Cooper took a moment, then smiled kindly at him. He approached, reaching up to pat his shoulder.

“‘It,’ Maitho, is fencing. It’s just more of a stress-relief than you thought.”


End file.
